Expat and travel blog featuring stories on living overseas destinations, as well as some stuff on the expat blogosphere too.

08/27/2013

Buñol, Spain: the world's biggest food fight

If you're living in the area around Valencia in Spain - or happen to be nearby at the end of August, then you may hear about strange goings on in the town of Buñol. Basically, every year around this time in August they hold what's known as La Tomatina - a very slightly bizarre festival that bills itself as 'the world's biggest food fight', where 'more than one hundred metric tons of over-ripe tomatoes are thrown in the streets'.

Equalling the Pamplona Bull Run for sheer exuberance (although without the danger), La Tomatina has been held regularly since the mid 1940s and has developed into a strong tradition, with the local authorities now ticketing the event to control the numbers of people who want to join in the madness.

The origins of the event are unclear, with a number of different stories as to how this small town became the venue for an unruly annual tomato fight. Some of the possible origins of La Tomatina that have been suggested include:

a practical joke on a bad musician

a schoolyard food fight

and perhaps the most amusing theory: the 'anarchic aftermath of an accidental lorry spill'

There's a host of crazy festivities during the festival, including a greasy pole with a ham on top as prize for whichever intrepid pole climber can reach it, as wellas a paella cooking contest, parades, and fireworks.